Sango's Dilemma
by Youkai-Sesshoumaru1
Summary: The group is having a pretty normal day in feudal Japan, until they happen upon a village that has been attacked by Kagura. In the midst of all the Comotion, Sango happens upon a baby whos parents were killed. She grabs the baby and runs out of the hut, o
1. The Baby Sango Saved

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SANGO'S DILLEMA

Chapter 1:_ The Child That Sango Saved:_

It was a normal day for the group, everything was going as normal as it could be for feudal Japan. Inuyasha and Kagome had gotten into another argument which, of course, ended with Inuyasha being sat and Kagome giving him the silent treatment. Miroku and Sango had given up trying to get them to talk to one another over an hour ago. Shippo who, as usual, had sided with Kagome and was now sitting in the basket of her bike while she walked with Sango and Kirara near the back. Miroku walked closer to the center of the group, and like always Inuyasha was at the front, making him the first to see the smoke and hear the cries off in the distance. Inuyasha immediately stopped, which caused everyone else to stop in their tracks and look up at the smoke that was coming from off in the distance, Inuyasha growled and clenched his fists. 

"Damn, I smell human blood, something bad is happening over there." He said. Kagome, who was now at the front of the group, suddenly turned pale as she looked at the smoke and uttered the words. "I sense a whole bunch of Sacred Jewel shards in that direction!" Miroku ran up to the front, closely followed by Sango. Miroku scowled and looked at the orange glow that was growing near the smoke. "I bet this is Naraku's doing, let's hurry and see what's going on!" Kirara transformed and Sango mounted her back, Shippou hopped on with her and they took off into the air. 

Kagome was peddling furiously on her bike in an effort to keep up with Inuyasha, Miroku was also sprinting closely behind. By the time they got there, over half the village was consumed in flames, and the all too familiar sounds of Kagura's cackling was heard echoing through the air. Inuyasha gripped the Tetsusaiga tightly and looked around. Not being able to see Kagura, he angrily shouted. "Kagura, show yourself, come out and fight!" Miroku had run to the few huts that were not completely consumed by flames and had begun hurrying villagers from them.

Kagome and Sango where doing their best to try and put out some of the flames with Kirara's help, but it was in vain, the huts were soon consumed in the flames and burned to the ground. Sango was about to turn and run back to help Inuyasha and Miroku, when she heard a faint cry coming from a behind her. She turned to see a hut that was not yet completely consumed in flames, and coming from inside was the cry of a frightened baby. She quickly ran over to the hut, running through the flames near the door and began frantically searching for where the cries of terror were coming from. She ran into a room that had been blackened with smoke and ash and saw a small rocking cradle. Near the cradle, two adults, a man and a woman, lay motionless on the ground, their faces red from the heat of the flames and their eyes completely void of any life.

Sango's face paled as she saw the child that was screaming in fear, it was a small infant, looking no more then a little over a week old. "It's parent's must have suffocated from the smoke." She said to herself. She was surprised by a loud cracking sound, she looked up to see a block of wood hanging loosely over the child's crib, her face paled as she saw that it was about to fall and crush the child. She rushed to the child and quickly grabbed it, wrapping the blanket it was covered in around it's body, all except his face was covered. She quickly ran back through the hut and out of it, just before the hut collapsed and burst into no more then a giant, burning pile of wood and flames.

Mean while, Inuyasha and Miroku had been locked in a fierce battle with Kagura. Kagome had been knocked unconscious earlier, when Kagura's winds had sent a piece of a broken wood pillar flying at her head, it had hit her directly in the temple and she had fallen limp. Inuyasha, enraged by seeing Kagome fall limp and motionless, had assumed the worst and was now fighting in a blind rage, slashing at Kagura with the Tetsusaiga. Kagura was able to easily predict his moves and dodge, since Inuyasha was fighting in a blind rage and not concentrating, he had lost his train of thought and was now making his moves obvious. With Inuyasha attacking blindly and refusing to shy away from his attacks, Miroku was unable to use his wind tunnel to try and defeat her, which he wasn't honestly sure would work on her even if he could use it.

Kagura was, after all, a wind sorceress, he wasn't sure if she would be sucked in by the wind tunnel, or if she would merely turn it back on himself. Either way, it did not matter right now. Inuyasha was fighting blindly, and that was almost never a good thing for anyone, including Inuyasha himself. All Miroku was able to do for the time being, was to stand idly by, and watch, as Inuyasha made his strategic less and blind attacks. Inuyasha growled in an fierce rage and dove at Kagura, slashing at her with the Tetsusaiga, he had missed again, this time Kagura had come up with a stomach to Inuyasha's knee, momentarily knocking the wind from him,

Inuyasha gasped, his eyes widening in pain and he stopped in mid slice, gasping and trying to breath as he dropped the Tetsusaiga and clenched his stomach. It was all he could do to mutter through clenched teeth as he glared at Kagura. "Damn you...w-wench, I-I'll kill you." Kagura smirked some, bringing her fan up in front of her face, she giggled in her normal evil, taunting tone. "Such a foolish little puppy, aren't you. You're attacking blindly, you'll never defeat me like this." She raised her fan into the air, ready to deliver the final blow and finish Inuyasha, when from no where she was struck in the ribs by Sango's boomerang, which was followed by the echo of her cry, "Hiraikotsu!" Kagura fell to the ground, then stood up and looked over to Sango. 

Seeing that Sango held a bundle in her arms, which was squirming and crying as it was held. Kagura grinned behind her fan, then reached to her hair and removed one of the feathers which were pinned to her hair, she then looked to Inuyasha, her eyes gleaming as she smirked at him while he was struggling back to his feet. "Well, Inuyasha. I'm afraid that as much fun as I'm having with you, I must take my leave, but don't worry, little puppy. I _will_ be back, to claim your head." She then tossed the feather, which grew to a large size. Kagura climbed onto the feather and took off into the sky, soon disappearing over the horizon. Inuyasha, Sango, and Miroku, all ran over to Kagome's side, where Shippo was already attempting to wake her. Inuyasha knelt down next to Kagome and lifted her head off the ground. 

"Kagome, Kagome! Wake up, open your eyes Kagome, please!" Inuyasha shouted, shaking her gently. Kagome groaned in pain, but slowly her eyes began to open. She looked up at Inuyasha through blurred eyes, she squinted for a bit, but soon her vision returned to normal and she could see clearly again. She reached her hand up slowly to touch her head, but quickly pulled it away when her touch was met with a throbbing pain in her fore head. "I-Inu..yasha...what happened?" Inuyasha held her tightly to him and sighed in relief, he looked down at her and said as quietly and clearly as he could, so as not to cause her anymore head pains. "Kagura attacked us, you were knocked unconscious but everything is ok now, we defeated her and she left." 

Miroku, mean while, had been in deep thought. Something didn't seem right to him, but he couldn't quite place what it was that was bugging him about the battle. 'Kagura had the upper hand, why did she leave so quickly when she could have easily finished us off? Granted, Sango's interference did seem to catch her off guard, but it wouldn't have done anymore then buy us a few more minutes before defeat. So why did she leave?' He thought to himself. He was interrupted from his thoughts when he heard a loud cry, he turned his head and looked to Sango, and the bundle she was holding her arms. He hadn't noticed it earlier, when Sango had attacked Kagura. He walked over to her and looked at the bundle. "What have you got there, Sango?" He asked. 

Sango turned her attention from the bundle to the rest of the group, who were now standing around her and looking at the bundle wrapped in her arms. She looked back down at the infant which she was cradling in her arms and holding close to her chest. "It's a baby, I found it in one of the huts before it burned down. It's parents had suffocated from the smoke, I couldn't just leave it there to die, so I took him from his crib and ran out of the hut before it collapsed." The others stood gathered around her and the child, watching as it squirmed and cooed in it's sleep. Inuyasha blinked a bit and sniffed at the child, his eyes widened slightly in shock and he pulled quickly away from it. "Sango, get ride of that thing, now!" Everyone turned to Inuyasha and looked at him in shock, Sango scowled and looked angrily at Inuyasha. "And why should I? It's only a child, I'm not going to abandon it and just leave it here to die!" 

Kagome looked half ready to sit Inuyasha into the ground, but before she could, Inuyasha shouted back at Sango. "That 'Infant' is carrying the scent of a demon! It's a Hanyou!" Everyone turned and looked at the child in Sango's arms. Sango looked skeptical, but she had never had any reason to doubt Inuyasha's word before, she reached her hand up slowly to the part of the blanket which had been covering the child's head, and gently pulled the part of the blanket away from it's head. Everyone looked at the child in shock, starring in disbelief at the child, who's head was covered in a thin shroud of white hair, and had two little, white, pointed, dog-like ears on top of it's head, making it look like an exact double of Inuyasha.


	2. The Child who Won Sango's Heart

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Chapter 2: The Child Who Won Sango's Heart:

The group stood, looking in awe at the small child, who appeared to be an infant version of Inuyasha. Miroku was the first to break the silence, taking a step closer to look the child over a bit closer. "How is this possible?" He said. "This child looks exactly like you, Inuyasha." Inuyasha said nothing, he, himself, couldn't believe how much alike this child and he looked. Was it really possible that this child actually _was_ him? Or was this just another of Naraku's twisted plots?

Whether it was one of Naraku's tricks or not, Inuyasha could already tell that it wasn't going to be an easy task to get Sango or Kagome to agree with giving up the child. They were both already fussing over it and every _cute_ little thing it did, Inuyasha wasn't sure if he would even be able to bring himself to tell Sango she had to get rid of it. She hadn't looked this happy since Kohaku had temporarily been freed of Naraku and she and him had been reunited, even if it had been only for that short amount of time. But then again, if it was one of Naraku's plots, then she would have her happiness destroyed by him once again. No doubt that was part of Naraku's plot. 

Only Naraku would attack someone by giving them happiness for short amount of time, only to rip it away with out mercy or remorse. And yet, Inuyasha had no way of proving that this child was one of Naraku's minions, or if the child was or wasn't actually him at all. The child didn't seem to have sign or marking from Naraku, and all of Naraku's incarnations all bore the same spider-like scar on their back. The only way to be sure or not, was to look at the child's back, and see for himself whether or not the child bore the mark of Naraku. With that decided, Inuyasha reached out in an attempt to grab the blanket and pull it off of the child, only to have his hand slapped away by Sango.

"What do you think you're doing, Inuyasha?" She said in a cold, stern tone. "If you take the blanket off, he'll catch cold!" Inuyasha growled as she slapped his hand, but had to admit that the way he had attempted to do it was a bit aggressive, especially with a child. He sighed and looked back at her, "I want to look at his back, to check for...something." Sango looked coldly at him, almost immediately knowing what he was thinking. "I know what you're thinking, Inuyasha, and you're wrong! He can't be one of Naraku's incarnations, how did he have any way of knowing that I would go into that hut, how did he know that the child wouldn't just be killed? And his parents were on the floor dead, he couldn't have parents if he was one of Naraku's incarnations!" Inuyasha growled and looked away. "Keh, and how would you know if they were his parents!? For all you know, Kagura slaughtered those humans and put the child their herself!" Kagome saw that Sango was about to retaliate, but quickly intervened by stepping between them both.

"Uh, Sango. You know I want as much as you do for the child not be one of Naraku's incarnations, but maybe Inuyasha is right. Why don't we just check to make sure? There's no harm in checking, is there?" Miroku nodded in agreement. "Yes Sango, there is no harm in just making sure." Sango sighed in defeat, the looks from the rest of her friends showed her that there would be no stop until they had checked. She had to admit that she herself had also suspected this, but she had hoped the others wouldn't, so that maybe she would have a chance to be happy again. But it seemed that it was not to be. Reluctantly, she slowly pulled down the blanket from the child's back, pausing as it squirmed in protest of the cold air that was not brushing over it's bare skin.

Sango felt tears begin to sting and fight their way into her eyes as she pulled down on the blanket, she bit her bottom lip and held her breath, then, in one quick tug, she pulled down the blanket, revealing the child's bare, mark less back. She closed her eyes at first, almost certain there would be a mark, then opened them and looked at the child's back, smiling and sighing in relief when she saw that there was no marking, nothing except for the bare, unscarred skin of a small infant. She quickly wrapped the blanket back around the child when it began whimpering from the cold, then looked back over to Inuyasha, while holding the baby close to her. "You see, Inuyasha? I told you he wasn't one of Naraku's incarnations." She said as she began to rock the child back to sleep, gently rubbing his back as she looked lovingly at the little infant. Inuyasha sighed and shook his head, he was defeated and knew it.

There was no indication of Naraku's trickery, so he couldn't continue his protest of Sango having the child, even though something in the back of his mind, in the pit of his stomach, told him that something was wrong. Kagome picked up her back pack and set her bike back up, then looked over at the other. "Well, in any event, we need to get going again, and we can't very well leave the baby. So we may aswell bring him with is." Sango smiled happily at Kagome, hearing her suggestion, she then looked over to Inuyasha and Miroku, as if waiting their approval of Kagome's suggestion. Miroku, of course, was the first of the two to answer. "Well, I see no harm in bringing the child along with us for now. It wouldn't be right to leave it here to starve or get eaten by wild animals, or demons." He turned and looked at Inuyasha, "Don't you agree, Inuyasha?" Inuyasha closed his eyes for a moment, then walked past Miroku, Sango, and Kagome, to the head of the group, before looking back and replying in a gruff, agitated tone. "Fine, we'll take him with us, for now. But if anything bad happens because of that little thing, then we're getting rid of it at the first village we come across, got it?"

Sango smiled and nodded, "All right, agreed. But I promise, I'll make sure he's no trouble. Thank you, Inuyasha." Inuyasha turned and continued walking, not bothering to respond to Sango's declaration of gratitude. Kagome smiled at seeing how happy Sango looked with the child. She held it protectively against her as they continued walking, hardly ever taking her eyes off of it, except to look up every once in a while to make sure she was keeping up with the group. Kirara and Shippo seemed to enjoy the baby's presence, Shippo looked at it with such and innocent, childish curiosity, as if expecting it to speak at any moment. While Kirara merely curled up near the small infants head and licked it ears, causing the baby's tiny, puppy-like ears to twitch and flicker as it cooed and squirmed lightly.

Sango giggled lightly as it snuggled itself against her for warmth and continued sleeping. The child couldn't have been more then a week old, and its parents were already dead, if those people Sango saw were even its parents at all. Sango looked lovingly and dearly at the child, as if it were her own flesh and blood, it would never have any memory of it's real parents, it would only know that Sango was it's mother, not it's really mother, but it's mother none the less. Sango smiled and ran her finger tips lightly over the babies head, smiling happily at hearing the soft, faint purring-like sound that come from the small child's chest. Kagome blinked a couple times in curiousity as she heard the child purr, then looked up to Inuyasha, the same curiosity in her eyes and in her tone of voice as she spoke. "Hey, Inuyasha, does that mean that you can purr too?" Inuyasha quickly turned his gaze to Kagome and said in a snapping tone, "No, it doesn't mean that I purr!!" yet he was quickly silenced when he heard the child cry.

Kagome looked slightly shocked as Sango almost immediately began rocking the infant and stroking it's ears softly in an attempt to calm it, and looked even more shocked when she noticed it was working, and it had worked almost instantly. "Sango, I'm impressed, I didn't know you were so good with children." She said as the child began to fall back asleep. Sango smiled slightly as she rocked the child in her arms and responded to Kagome in a soft voice, "Well, my mother and father were both demon slayers, like I am. When they were gone, I had to take care of Kohaku while he was still an infant as well." She then turned her attention to Inuyasha and said in a quiet, yet more stern sounding voice. "And _you_, Inuyasha, are going to have to be more careful about how loud you are around the baby. Babies scare very easily at loud noises." Inuyasha gritted his teeth and turned his gaze away and said through clenched fangs. "Fine...it's not bad enough that you have to bring it with us, but now I have to be quiet while I'm around it, too." Kagome walked up to the front, next to Inuyasha, and said in a quiet, calm tone, "Inuyasha, Sango's right you know, you have to be careful about how loud you are around little babies.... Especially one with your ears." Inuyasha clenched his fist, but sighed, knowing that Sango and Kagome were right. "Fine.... I'll be quiet when I'm around it, all right?" Kagome smiled and leaned over, kissing Inuyasha's cheek. "Thanks."

Inuyasha said nothing; he just stood there for a moment, looking dumbfounded and utterly shocked. Kagome slowed and went back to walking next to Sango, Miroku, and Shippo, all of who seemed to be completely infatuated with the child's presence. Shippo continued to look at the child as if he were expecting it to open it's eyes and wave at him, Kirara sleeping soundly on the baby's stomach in her small, kitten-like form, Miroku looking attentively at Sango, while Sango continued to cradle and stroke the child's ears soothingly. Inuyasha could feel something in his stomach, a burning, sickening feeling that had been growing ever since they had decided to bring the child with them. But what was it that was making him feel like this? It wasn't anger; Inuyasha knew anger better then almost any other emotion. It wasn't pity for the child, sure if the child had been left to live in a village, he would have gone through as much of a hell as Inuyasha had with his child hood, but that wasn't the case. Sango had found the child, and Sango wouldn't let anything like that happen, nor would Miroku, Kagome, or Shippo. So what was it that he was feeling, that was directed towards the child...was it, perhaps, a slowly growing sense of _jealousy_?


End file.
